The generation and rendering of high end graphics often involves the movement of large quantities of data. Frequently the data is stored in a server, from which it may be accessed by users at computer workstations via a network. Once the data is received at the computer workstation, the graphics may be displayed on an attached video monitor. In many cases the video monitor is physically separate and has been conventionally attached to the computer workstation via an analog interface, such as a video graphics array (VGA) interface, or a digital interface such as a digital visual interface (DVI). In a typical configuration, an interface in the computer workstation is connected to a compatible interface in the video monitor via an interstitial connector, such as a cable.
The ever increasing amount of multimedia content, and in particular, high quality multimedia content is presenting a number of challenges to designers and administrators of computing platforms and network alike. For example, bandwidth, hardware, and the isochronous nature of multimedia file transfers are all factors limiting the quality and availability of the multimedia content. In this regard a number of standards have been developed for transporting high quality multimedia data for presentation. For example, the digital video interface (DVI) and High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) represent two of the most widely adopted and utilized display interfaces. However, DVI and HDMI each have a number of drawbacks which Video electronics Standards Association (VESA) has attempted to address with the newly emerging DisplayPort (DP) standard. In this regard, DP may offer, for example, increased bandwidth and more advanced copy protection as compared to DVI or HDMI.
Display Port is a digital interface standard, which enables a computer workstation to send graphics and video data to a video monitor, or multimedia display device, via a Display Port interface. In this regard, the Display Port interface standard may describe a point-to-point interface, which is capable of transmitting data from a device connected at one end of a connecting cable to a device connected at the other end of the connecting cable. The graphics and/or video data communicated across the Display Port interface may be sent in mini-packets as described in applicable standards. The mini-packets may contain information comprising instructions on how to render the graphics and/or video data on the video display screen, for example. The mini-packets may be sent via a plurality of data paths referred to as “lanes”. In an exemplary Display Port interface, there may be four (4) such lanes.
In addition to supporting unidirectional data traffic from the workstation to the computer monitor (or other attached video display device), the Display Port standard may also enable the bidirectional transfer of data. For example, the Display Port standard may allow for the exchange of encryption keys to enable the transfer of encrypted digital data across the Display Port interface. This capability may enable protection of digital content transferred across the Display Port interface. In addition, the bidirectional traffic capability of the Display Port interface may enable communication of computer mouse and/or keyboard data to the computer workstation. For example, mouse clicks to specific regions on the screen, or keyboard responses to the screen display may result in the generation of data across the Display Port interface in the direction of the video display device to the computer workstation.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.